


Calcified

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, F/M, Gen, Post-Battle, Reapers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2024922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The genophage is cured and Saoirse waits for the ride back to the Hollows amongst Tuchanka's old bones.</p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: calcified</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calcified

Tuchanka, desolate and barren and old bleached bones in the baking sun.  
  
She tugs off her helmet and collapses against a pile of rubble and ancient roots as she waits for someone to come get her in a tomkah, the remains of the Shroud not so far away as she holds up her hand to watch the cure touch her gauntlet then disappear. She turns, too dazed to be fully aware of what's going on right now because the genophage is _cured_ and that's monumental, and says, "hey, it's snowing on Tuchanka," but Mordin is gone.  
  
Mordin isn't even bones given that explosion.  
  
She thinks about where she, Javik and Garrus found themselves, the lost city of the ancients but where most lost places are tombs, there's life here. Gnarled roots and a green she never thought existed on Tuchanka before. Life will find a way.  
  
Tuchanka is hope now.  
  
Saoirse doesn't doubt that there's going to be a lot of angry people out there – most of them salarian for the moment and she wonders how they'll talk of Mordin, if he'll be a traitor, how his story will change when the war gets worse, when they're going to have to let the past go and move on – but this is proof of something here. That they're doing the right thing. That this war isn't unwinnable. That they can destroy a Reaper without weapons. Not far away there's something she feels confident enough labelling as a thresher maw skeleton because something that big needs bone, reminding her of a snake although this one died on its back, the 'ribs' (Liara told her they were more like support bones once when they'd fought one on some empty world, hopping out to inspect it. The exoskeleton is still there, hard plates, parts of the face but acid has melted away some of the bones and hard tissue remaining there. She thinks of Kalros, of seeing something that big and a lot of titles are just titles but she doesn't know enough about thresher maw biology other than they're tough bastards to kill. Maybe Kalros is the mother of each and every one of them.  
  
Kalros who burst forth and grappled with a Reaper, coiled about it like a python and dragged it down into the dark with her. She wonders if Kalros is going to survive what she's done, if Tuchanka is going to gain one mother but lose another then shakes her head to clear the thought. She can't think like that. Javik has seen the death of a Reaper today and that's something and all that would make today better would be standing here with Kaidan but he's still on the Citadel. He should be here. She needs him here, needs to grab his hand or hear him through the radio as she confirms to Liara where she is so they can come get her and meet with Wrex and Eve. She wants to be able to say _we did it_ because Kaidan was there from the start, three humans on a mission that turned out to be so different to what it was and they've just defeated a Reaper. Krogans are going to have a future and she knows that they're going to fight tooth and nail with the rest of them to see it happen.  
  
A tomkah rolls up and Saoirse pushes herself to her feet, taking one last look at the old bones and pictures plants growing, roots and vines coiling around them and wonders what happens to Reaper remains.  
  
She plans to stick around to find out.


End file.
